THE BEAR FACTS
May 8, 2021

Good morning! I’m Joseph Trainer!

I’m Jack Snyder!

I’m Aric Laubenthal!

And I’m Reese Rosenmeyer! You’re listening to a special edition of the “Bear Facts”, where we’re celebrating the class of 2021 here at Bishop Garrigan High School.

The seniors had baccalaureate last Wednesday, and we took our final tests Thursday and Friday. Now all that’s left for the Class of 2021 is graduation. Tomorrow afternoon forty-one seniors will walk across the stage to receive their diplomas. There was also a forty-second senior who graduated early, making this one of the largest groups of graduates we’ve had in recent years.

Graduation starts at 2pm in Friedmann Auditorium, and it will be broadcast here on KLGA. The Bishop Garrigan concert band will play the processional and then the National Anthem, and then all the seniors will join in their class prayer. Jack Snyder will give the senior address, and senior choir members will lead a presentation of the song “You Raise Me Up”. Fr. Ed Girres will be presenting this year’s diplomas.

The Class of 2021 chose the school colors of black and gold for their class colors. The class flower is the white rose, and the motto is “Never let your successes go to your head. Never let your failures go to your heart.” There are twenty-seven honor students among the seniors, who will be wearing gold cords to graduation.

There are a lot of accomplishments that the Class of 2021 can be proud of. Both the boys and girls in the class have helped lead teams to the state basketball tournament, and senior Angelo Winkel was named captain of the all-tournament team at state as a junior. Members of the class have also been to state and won the conference championship in softball, and they’ve won the state championship in golf.

The seniors are especially known for their accomplishments in the arts. Joey Trainer was selected to the all-state choir for four straight years, and Garrigan was also among the top schools in the state in jazz choir. The musicals and plays this class has been part of won statewide awards, and seniors have also excelled at band, speech, and visual arts.

Cora Ricke was a two-time state individual champion in dance, and the Golden Bear danz squad continued its success at state and nationals. Seniors have also competed at the national level in quiz bowl and in DECA, the organization for business and entrepreneurship. Many seniors are in sports year-round and are also part of numerous non-sports activities—which has kept them busy from early morning to late night all through high school. That’s how a small school like us can be successful at so many things.

This past Tuesday awards were announced for several Garrigan activities. Among those was the “Bear Facts”, which will be finishing up our twenty-ninth year on the radio next week. This year twenty-one Garrigan students served as announcers on the “Bear Facts”, and ten earned activity letters for their frequent work. The award for “Outstanding Broadcaster” for 2021 went to Jack Snyder.

Another activity that passed out awards this week was quiz bowl. Every quiz bowl tournament was done virtually this year, but there were still nineteen Golden Bears involved in the competition. The Bears were among the top schools in the nation in three different online contests. Nine students lettered in quiz bowl, and the team MVPs this year were Aric Laubenthal and Abbi Heying.

Our Golden Bear girls track team set two records at the Algona High meet last Monday. Sophomore Molly Joyce broke the school record with a distance of 17 feet, 8 inches in the long jump; while the team of Molly Joyce, Emma Grandgenett, Reese Rosenmeyer, and Gracie Rosenmeyer set a new mark in the shuttle hurdle relay with a time of 1 minute, 8.76 seconds. Congratulations to these record-breaking track stars!

Our final Senior Spotlight for the year shines on Isaiah Byrkeland. Here to tell you about him is Derrick Kirsch.

Isaiah Byrkeland’s main activity at Garrigan is baseball. He’s played at the corners and also pitched for the Golden Bears all through high school. After graduating, he plans to head over to NIACC, where he’d like to major in construction management. We wish Isaiah and all the Class of 2021 good luck in the future!

Thanks, Derrick. On this week’s Golden Bear calendar, about the only thing going on today are graduation receptions for various seniors. Tomorrow is commencement for the Class of ’21. The ceremony begins at 2pm.

Monday the Bears will be competing in the Top of Iowa Conference golf meets, with the girls at Garner and the boys at Lake Mills. Then on Wednesday semester tests begin for the freshmen, sophomores, and juniors.

As always, there’s a special schedule for semester tests, and everyone has open campus when they’re not testing. Next Thursday there’s the boys sectional golf meet at Spring Valley.

The state qualifying track meet is also next Thursday. The Bears will be running at Northwood—Kensett.

Next Friday is the last day of school. The day will end at 12:30, and we’ll have parish busing in the afternoon.

That’s the “Bear Facts” for this week. Next week some of the younger Bears will be back for one last show. Be sure to join them as they preview the summer here at Bishop Garrigan High School.